Sunday, August 26, 2012

Little league baseball bats

A few days ago I posted a note about a recent case for injuries caused by a ball hit with an aluminum bat during a little league baseball game which settled for $14.5 million. (See here.) Today, as I watched the Little League World Series with my 8 year old son on TV, I noticed the bats did not make that metallic high pitched sound that aluminum bats typically make. So, I went on line and did a quick search - thinking maybe they are not using metal bats anymore... And I did find that the bats are, in fact, different now. They are still not using wood bats, but there are more regulations in place. Here is a link to the Little League page on bat rules. Not only have the rules changed, I was surprised to see this statement: "For the 2011 season, a moratorium on the use of baseball bats with composite materials in the barrel was enacted by Little League. The moratorium was enacted because it was discovered, through laboratory testing, that a significant number of these bats could exceed the standard that is printed on the bat – after the bat was broken in."